Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
I hear Roan curse in my ear. “It’s time to get out of here. Everyone fall back to the shop. We’ll locate our two lost packages and hit the road.”
“What are they going to do with those women?” I watch Reymon hurry back. Both his daughter and his wife look to be in danger.
“It doesn’t matter,” Roan insists. “It only matters that whatever would happen involves two of our team members, perhaps three if Kaja isn’t in her other form when these soldiers catch her. Now fall back.”
The soldiers are moving, picking women out of the crowd and pulling them from crying children or angry men. One villager attempts to defend his daughter. I watch as a sword slices through his belly.
It’s wrong. There it is. That feeling in my gut. It isn’t merely triggered by Bronwyn. The warrior inside me had his first blood, and the utter injustice I see has that warrior begging for more.
“Your Highness, you said it yourself. This is not your fight.” Roan makes his way back, placing a hand on my shoulder. “What is your mission?”
“To save my bondmate.”
But Rachel Harper’s words ring in my head. These might be Seelie Fae, but damn if they don’t bleed like I do. And they love their wives and children. The old and the infirm are struggling alongside the healthy, but they are going to lose.
“Your Highness, I see the light in your eyes. This is a mistake. There are too many soldiers. There’s thirty of them and nine of us, and three of us shouldn’t be fighting. Shim won’t be able to handle the sunlight if the cloud disperses and Gillian and the gnome should stay hidden.” Roan shakes his head. “I understand the need to stop an injustice, but we have to think about our own women.”
A soldier hauls Reymon’s daughter to the center of the square. She stands, shaking in front of the hag.
Reymon wasn’t thinking of himself when he offered his home. Reymon opened his own bedroom and thanked the goddess that the Unseelie kings came to help them.
Is Reymon standing out there wondering where the kings are now, or has he figured out that his own life and that of his whole family will be weighed and judged as meaningless in the wake of my own?
I spent years trying to be taken seriously as a prince.
What does it mean to have this power inside me if I never use it? What kind of king am I if I keep walking away from people like Reymon and the Harpers because I’m waiting for the right fight?
“Your Highness,” Roan begins.
Reymon runs for his daughter. I can see plainly what will happen. Two soldiers move to intercept the shopkeeper. It won’t matter that he’s trying to protect his child or that he’s woefully unarmed. They’re smiling and hauling swords over their heads.
And I realize something.
The right fight is the one in front of me.
“Go on then, Roan. Protect my sister.” I break from the group.
Roan hisses in my ear. “And let you have all the fun? Not on your life, you bastard.”
I hear the sonic boom blast past me. It sends the soldiers scattering.
Chaos rules around me as everyone starts to run.
I hoist my sword and a fierce joy takes hold as I finally give in to my instincts and begin the good fight.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bronwyn
“Princess, what are you doing?” Niall jogs beside me, churning up dust as we run. “We need to go the other way. Is there something you need from town? I don’t think we should go back there.”
Damn straight we shouldn’t go back there, but I can’t run. Not this time. The village is under attack, and it has something to do with me.
And I’m not about to let the village go down in flames without me there to help defend it.
“You don’t have to come with me. Just give me my knife and we can part ways. My father should have told you. I’m rather stubborn when I want to be.”
Niall reaches out and grabs my elbow, hauling me around. His eyes are fixed on mine. “I can be stubborn, too, Princess. I say we’re leaving. I cannot allow your soft heart to put the whole kingdom in jeopardy.”
He starts to pull me close, most likely to haul me over his shoulder, but there’s a low growl from my right. Kaja is at my side, staring up at Niall. The brown fur on her back stands straight up, her perfectly white teeth on display.
Niall gasps as he looks down at the wolf.
I rather like having a wolf for a cousin. “I would back away. Kaja has been looking for someone to eat, and you don’t want to be on her menu.”
I try pulling myself free, but Niall holds fast. His face, previously worried, settles back into the stubborn mask of one who isn’t going to allow himself to be swayed by anything.